Seeking Seaside

Well, we had a new tent and were itching to try it. Combined with our urgent need to get a bit of seaside, and a genuine need to get some photos and videos for my next big online course, what else to do but head to Cornwall?!

The weather was....mixed...but the pasties and icecream were just what we needed to keep the mood up. 

On our last full day, we found a very quiet part of the southern coast and walked to this beach, only accessible on foot. Perfect. 

Many videos and photos were taken, just because. I could sit and listen and watch all day, but unfortunately, we had to climb back up the cliff and find icecream. 

So that was a good day, but all in all, it was just a little stressy. Learning to pitch (and then dry) the mammoth new tent, plus a campsite owner who must have had some sort of military or headteachery background by the tone of the messages and posters plastered absolutely everywhere, we didn't really have the relaxing break we were looking for. 

So we're up for a second go. Going further south and west, taking a smaller tent that's quicker to pitch and easier to dry, and preparing properly for cold nights! Last time I ended up sleeping in double socks and a lambswool sweater - this time, I'm going to add tights and a hat.

So pray the weather gods shine upon us, and please please let us go before all the campsites and pasty shops are closed for another lockdown. Oh, and the tearooms - we made a major booboo last time and forgot to have a cream tea! I know, shocking. We will remedy if we can. 

And in case you were wondering, it's scone with an "on", and jam first. 

It's been a month now

So probably about time to download the holiday photos and resume normal service around here!

I can't believe it's a month, we haven't stopped since getting home - new school for Girl, new classes to teach for me, a ton of washing and tent-drying, a car-full of sand and shells and pebbles (some of which are still in the underfloor lockers). 

Ah, Brittany.  How we miss you.

You're so beautiful.

And we all love our home away from home:

Same campsite, different pitch, but a good one.  Maybe after 8 years we get to have the same one next year?  Maybe...some people have been going there for over 40 years...they usually get first dibs.

It's a stone's throw from a magnificent sandy beach with bands of pretty shells:

I'm particularly fascinated with the endless ripples and reflections...

(I spent three weeks trying to work out whether I was a "big picture" or "small picture" person, creatively.  Whaddya reckon??!  I think I've worked it out now...)

The sky is always interesting, and there's such a lot of it:

Just as well we walk and cycle and swim so much when we're there, as we all love the food - the bread, the patisserie, the picnics, the yoghurt pots to lick out, the moules (shared with about 4000 locals in the town square) - note the bottom pic of the Boy, who worked out where the biscuits were kept and just helped himself!

And we are all happy catching up with a year's worth of sleep, reading, swimming, being blown about by the wind, riding tiny ponies, paddling, drawing in the sand...

but not so happy being stung by jellyfish (Girl's knee, top left). 

(Afterwards, she wasn't sleeping in a little tent: it was more of a tentacle, ha ha)

She wasn't impressed.  Even less impressed with having to "frotter" her leg with "sable" to get the sting out!

Ah well, onwards...a busy year ahead, with lots of different projects to share, but all in the knowledge that we'll be going back next year - hooray!

Life under canvas

'oscopies and trains under the sea and 500 mile drives completed, when we arrive at our most favourite summer retreat we spend most of the first week falling asleep at any and every opportunity

But when we have slept enough, we unzip our front door and greet the day

and just a short walk from our canvas home we find this

Actually, when we live under canvas everything is a short walk: toilets, taps, showers, washing up, rinsing vegetables, new elephants for the coolbox...

But if that wasn't enough exercise, there is an awful lot of this to run about on and chase whippets

and a lot of this to paddle in

and play the role of "embarrassing Mother" by sketching seaweed whilst standing knee deep in icy salty water

and some of us also swim in it,

while others only go as deep as the ankles

some of us probably have more inbuilt layers of insulation than others...

When we've warmed up again after our paddlings and swimmings (note to self: take sheepskin boots and/or mohair socks for the cold toes) we potter about on bicycles and find little lanes that we'd like to live down

or buy icecreams from the nice people in the office

and maybe do a bit of paint flinging and paper sticking

or some of us may stay in our cage crate all day, depressed because we were bitten when having a lovely chasing game on the beach and it is sore and we're not allowed to lick it and we cost our owners quite a few euros in out-of-hours vet's bills...

but never mind, we've discovered a new doggy chew

and at the end of the day

we go back to bed in our canvas sanctuary and sleep for hours and hours, all over again

and only wake up to walk to the loo in the dark, stargaze, and count the flashes on the different lighthouses and buoys.

We miss it.

Now we're getting somewhere

How about combining both bits of felt, using both "wrong" sides?  Aha.  I think I like where this is going now.

Meanwhile, we had a night out - with babysitters and everything (yes, literally - slippers, knitting, dog, dog bed...) - first time for about two years - I'm not kidding.  And what did we go and do?  We went to see this:



And I whilst I wasn't the only girl, the audience was mostly male and slender...GOSH I want to go and see the Tour again!  We 'll have to get the child into a posh school so we can go on holiday in July...